[REVIEW] Illegear Selenite Laptop (i7-8750H, RTX 2070)

[genexis_x]

[Scroll to bottom for i7-9750H+2060 and 2080MQ updates]

 

Hi everyone. This is my seventh review in LTT forum. I will be reviewing the Illegear Selenite laptop. Main specs of the laptop are as below:

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i7-8750H

RTX 2070 8GB

16GB 2666MHz RAM single channel

Samsung PM981 256GB

Intel 9560

W10 Trial

Mechanical keyboard (brown switch)

144Hz IPS

Kryonaut repaste and display colour calibration included

 

Based on TongFang GK7CP7S chassis

A few notes before reading:

1. This is a quick review; thus, not everything will be covered in here

2. This review will mainly focus on thermals instead of performance

3. I will often compare this model with its smaller brother – Onyx (read the review here)

 

Product page: https://store.illegear.com/slim-and-powerful-gaming-laptops/180-illegear-selenite.html

 

Part 1: Build quality, input devices

Build quality is excellent overall, only just slightly behind Onyx. The lid has aluminium brush on top of it. There is only little flex when force is applied at the center. There is some flex when the lid is twisted, but not as much compared to Onyx. The lid has a bit of wobbling. You can open the lid with 1 hand. The body is all hard-plastic+soft touch build. Despite that, there is no flex on the entire keyboard deck and it cannot be twisted with force.

 

The mechanical keyboard (GENESWITCH v2, cap 2, brown switch) has low actuation force (slightly lower than the one in Onyx) and 2mm key travel. The switches are surprisingly quiet when pressed. Should be usable in quiet conditions such as in library. There is one complaint: The keycaps have some wobbling which makes typing a little uncomfortable. Like the Raven, the layout is a bit special (especially right CTRL and SHIFT keys) and I can sometimes mistype the up key when trying to press right shift. You can set the effect, brightness and speed of the keyboard lighting via the Control Center software.

 

The large Clickpad has Precision driver. The plastic surface has satisfactory smoothness but can be a bit rough when you have wet/oily fingers. Like the Onyx, you can disable the clickpad by double tapping the left top corner of the clickpad. The L/R click feel is OK, nothing special. Take note that the clickpad is located directly below the space bar; therefore, it’s aligned more to the left side. One minor issue: The clickpad has some noise when tapped hard on it.

 

Part 2: Display, Audio, Battery

The display is a 144Hz IPS panel from BOE (display ID BOE07B6). As you can expect from a high refresh rate panel, everything feels smooth. It gets bright enough, colours are vibrant and has good contrast.

 

The 2 down firing speakers has good audio (with a bit of bass too); however, you need to tune the audio via Sound Blaster software (otherwise the sound quality is terrible). Tuned audio profile: Music profile, bass 0, treble 3, surround 80, crystalizer 50, bass 40, smart vol 0, dialog+ off. Volume is a bit soft/quiet. Overall, the sound quality is slightly worse than the one in Onyx (with tuned audio profile too).

 

I don’t have time to test the battery life, however don’t expect much from the 46.74Wh battery.

 

Part 3: Cooling performance

The cooling design consists of 3 heatpipes with 1 shared on CPU+GPU. The heatsink is stretched to both left and right.

 

Notes on all thermal testing:

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PL1 – 70W, PL2 – 85W

BIOS N.1.02, EC 1.03.09

GPU driver tested is 418.91

Test is conducted in an A/C room (ambient 20-22C)

Game mode and equilibrium mode are used (more on that later)

Laptop is plugged in. The fans take a while to speed up when load is applied

Max fan noise is ~54dBA

For some reason, the GPU has locked voltage (factory locked). There is no way to customize the voltage curve via MSI Afterburner (empty inside, tried many settings but no luck).

 

CPU Undervolt profile: -100mv on core and cache

Blue highlighted part is CPU undervolted result

 

CPU temp - Cinebench R15 multi core (1 run)

Max 95C ~3.4-3.6GHz ~80W

Max 95C 3.8-3.9GHz 82-85W 1200+cb

Almost full fans for both

 

CPU temp - Aida64 FPU 70W

Max 90C 3.0-3.1GHz

Max 90C 3.3-3.4GHz

Almost max fans for both

 

GPU temp - Unigine Valley (extreme HD profile)

Clock speed fluctuates, at least 100MHz higher than boost clock (1440MHz)

Max 75C max 125W

Slightly reduced fans (compared to almost max fans)

 

FPU (with undervolt) + Valley (extreme HD) with max fans

CPU: Max 94C 3.0-3.1GHz ~50W

GPU: Max 75C same clock speed behaviour ~120W

 

Apex Legends 1080p all max, 8GB budget, 90 FOV (with undervolt)

CPU: Mid 70s, clock speed fluctuates 3+GHz 20-25W (see video below for explanation of the clock speed fluctuation)

GPU: Max 75C, clock speed fluctuates mostly sit at 1500-1600MHz range 115+W

Slightly reduced fans

 

Unigine Valley benchmark (extreme HD, 1 run)

FPS: 95.9

Score: 4011

 

The chassis stay quite cool when it’s under load. Core temp differential is ~10C

 

In Illegear Command Center, there are 2 modes to choose from: Game mode or office mode. Office mode gives you access to control fan speed but has a 35W CPU power limit

 

There are also 4 power profiles to choose from:

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High performance (same with Windows)

Game

Equilibrium

Power saving

Here’s a good video on how all the power setting works. Very informative. Basically, just keep it to game mode and equilibrium

 

The included power adapter is a 230W unit from Chicony. Take note that temps might be a little higher when running dual channel memory. 

 

Part 4: Miscellaneous

The laptop is very portable for a 17-inch gaming laptop while not sacrificing thickness for cooling room – 2.35kg and 25mm thickness. The footprint is also relatively small, just like typical 15 inch device.

 

You need to press about 2 seconds to power on the laptop.

 

For the positioning of ports and other pictures, you can refer Notebookcheck review on this model

 

Other settings in Control Center software:

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Power source for display – turn off internal display

Display colour profile: Standard, Gaming, Video, Reading, Customize

Light Effect: Keyboard backlight, LED light bar

Other settings: Windows key lock, Hibernation USB charging, Discrete GPU ‘on’, Turn off OSD, Gamer mode

Updated Illegear Command Center:

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Bonus Section: i7-9750H update (GK7CP0S)

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Main specs:

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i7-9750H

RTX 2060 6GB

16GB 2666MHz RAM (dual channel)

512GB NVMe M.2 SSD

144Hz IPS

Intel 9560

W10 Trial

Kryonaut repaste and display colour calibration included

Since it’s a 2060 model, I will not perform GPU thermal test due to less heat output.

 

Notes:

1. BIOS N.1.52, EC 2.04.09

2. GPU driver tested is 430.64

3. This model gets the new Illegear Command Center with GPU boost feature (except for 2070 model)

4. 2060 model will also get 230W Chicony charger for 9th gen CPU

5. Optional 63Wh battery upgrade is available

6. Other notes from previous thermal testing that are not mentioned also apply here

7. To get best performance+thermal result for GPU, you need to undervolt GPU and use turbo mode.

 

Undervolt profile: CPU core+cache -100mv. You can undervolt GPU if you want, but it takes time. Blue highlighted part is the undervolted result.

 

CPU temp - Cinebench R15 multi core (1 run)

Max 84C, 75-77W, 4GHz, 1250+cb

Max 81C, 68-69W, 4GHz, 1250+cb

~37dBA

 

CPU temp - Aida64 FPU 70W

Max 84C, 3.4-3.5GHz

Max 84C, 3.6+GHz

~35dBA

 

Time Spy (Turbo mode, 1 run):

Score: 6817, Graphics: 6811

 

Fire Strike (Turbo mode, 1 run):

Score: 15862, Graphics: 17694

Bonus Section: 2080MQ update (GK7CQ8S)

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Main specs:

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i7-9750H

RTX 2080 Max-Q 8GB

16GB 2666MHz RAM (single channel)

256GB Samsung PM981 M.2 SSD

144Hz IPS

Intel 9560

W10 Trial

Kryonaut repaste and display colour calibration included

Notes:

• PL1 – 70W, PL2 – 85W (turbo mode), PL1 – 100W, PL2 – 100W (game mode)
• BIOS N.1.00, EC 2.04.09
• GPU driver tested is 430.86
• Test is conducted in an A/C room (ambient 20-22C)
• Game mode and turbo mode are used (except for CB15 and Aida FPU) - new Illegear Command Center with GPU boost feature
• BD PROCHOT for CPU is 95C
• Max fan noise is ~52dBA
• Laptop is plugged in. The fans take a while to speed up when load is applied
• Optional 63Wh battery upgrade is available

Undervolt profile: CPU core+cache -100mv. You can undervolt GPU if you want, but it takes time. Blue highlighted part is the undervolted result.

 

CPU temp - Cinebench R15 multi core - temperature taken from first run

Max 91C, 87-90W, 1250+cb

Max 86C, 78-82W, 1250+cb

~49dBA

 

CPU temp - Aida64 FPU 100W

Max 95C, ~3.5GHz

Max 95C, ~3.6GHz

~50dBA

 

GPU temp - Unigine Valley (extreme HD profile)

1680-1830MHz - 1830MHz is max at 0.95V

Max 73C, ~41dBA

 

FPU + Valley (extreme HD) with max fans

CPU: Max 95C, 3.07-3.1GHz, 54-57W - undervolt will have same result

GPU: Max 76C, 1680-1830MHz

 

CSGO - 1080p all max, Mirage, no bots - manual PL2 set to 45W, otherwise power consumption will have 60+W spikes

CPU: Max 87C, 3.2-4GHz, max 45W

GPU: Max 73C, 1815/1830MHz

~41dBA

 

CSGO with max fans - manual PL2 45W

CPU: Max 80C, 3.2-4GHz, max 45W

GPU: Max 66C, 1830MHz

 

CPU (UV): Max 76C, 3.2-4GHz, max 45W

GPU: Max 63C, 1830MHz

 

Apex Legends - 1080p all max, 8GB budget, 90 FOV, training map with max fans - manual PL2 45W (forgot to change back, don't have impact)

CPU: 78-87C, 3.4-4GHz, 24-36W

GPU: Max 82C, 1710-1815MHz

 

CPU (UV): 76-82C, 3-4GHz, 24-28W (weird?)

GPU: 81-82C, 1710-1815MHz

 

Time Spy (Turbo mode, 1 run):

Score: 8420, Graphics: 9181

 

Fire Strike (Turbo mode, 1 run):

Score: 19014, Graphics: 23844

 

Gallery (credits to @D13H4RD)

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Conclusion: Well-cooled and well-built 17 inch RTX light weight gaming laptop

 

Pros:

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Portable for a 17 inch gaming laptop

Good build quality, excellent cooling

144Hz display

Plenty of ports

Optional battery upgrade

Cons:

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Keycaps have a bit of wobbling - just a minor issue tbh

Audio needs tuning

Thanks for reading! Let me know if there are mistakes in the review.

Edited July 26, 2019 by GeneXiS_X
2080MQ update